[Web4lib] The end of MySpace, SecondLife, and Twitter

[Havens,Andy]

IMHO... This piece is almost totally, completely off-base.

I'm not a devotee of any of these sites in particular. I don't use
Twitter at all; I've been in SecondLife on-and-off for years, mostly
because it's fascinatingly odd to me; I have a MySpace page that I do
not use -- to paraphrase Wolfgang Pauli (who said of string theory,
"It's not even wrong."), MySpace is not even ugly.

That being said... The idea that they are going to dry up and go away
within the next 2.5 years is foolish at best, and, probably just being
done to get some nay-saying attention. I'd suggest he's
comment-dragging, but the site doesn't allow comments... 

As of today, there are 184,962,335 registered MySpace users. According
to a comScore report from this last February, Fox Interactive media
sites (of which MySpace is the most popular) were getting 140 million
hits a day. People aren't using it to create "Web sites" in the
traditional sense. The whole "wall-to-wall" communication medium is part
of what's making MySpace and Facebook popular, yet PCMag doesn't even
mention this. When users leave MySpace, they often migrate to Facebook
to continue the same kind of comms, but in a more professional/academic
manner.

His assessment of SecondLife is clearly that of someone who hasn't even
tried the service, but has picked up some tidbits from the media. Yes,
the numbers of "residents" don't accord to long-term users. But it's
still extraordinary that 6 million people have downloaded a 20+meg
client and tried the service since last October when it hit the 1
million resident mark. On average there are 40,000+ people logged into
SL at any given moment and more than $US 1 million per day changing
hands in the sale and purchase of virtual items, property, etc. To call
it a "scam" is, well... provocative, but not particularly interesting or
insightful.

And as to Twitter... I don't get it. But I'm old enough to know that
just because I don't get it, doesn't mean in ain't "got it." If Twitter
goes away, it will be because it's been replaced by something so close
that it will be called "the Twitter killer."

The fact, too, that he's lumped these three properties together is
telling. They have all 3 had lots of inappropriately vague and, in many
cases, laudatory press. Confused press. Shallow press. He's not
balancing out the confusion or shallowness at all; just the praise. His
review is as deeply shallow (ha ha) as anything that's been out there
claiming that these services are the be-all-end-all. Ironic.

I'm surprised he didn't damn Wikipedia, blogging and the Model-T Ford,
too.

Not sure about Twitter. But if SL and MySpace aren't around in 2010,
I'll eat my virtual hat.


- A
Andy Havens
OCLC: Manager, Branding and Creative Services

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Dan Lester
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 1:03 PM
To: web4lib
Subject: [Web4lib] The end of MySpace, SecondLife, and Twitter

and maybe Ning as well?



http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2145408,00.asp  



I'm not quite as positive as the author is, but he's looking at it from
what I consider to be an appropriate view.  



dan, old enough to remember when "Push Technology" was the next big
thing.  It has been long enough I've forgotten the name of the desktop
app that everybody had to have....





It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you;

it's what you leave behind you when you go.



dan at riverofdata.com

Dan Lester, Boise, Idaho, USA
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